Big bill for levee upkeep comes to New Orleans

Source: AP-Excite

By CAIN BURDEAU

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the busy and under-staffed offices of New Orleans' flood-control leaders, there's an uneasy feeling about what lies ahead.

By the time the next hurricane season starts in June of 2013, the city will take control of much of a revamped protection system of gates, walls and armored levees that the Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $12 billion building. The corps has about $1 billion worth of work left.

Engineers consider it a Rolls Royce of flood protection - comparable to systems in seaside European cities such as St. Petersburg, Venice, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Whether the infrastructure can hold is less in question than whether New Orleans can be trusted with the keys.

The Army Corps estimates it will take $38 million a year to pay for upkeep, maintenance and operational costs after it's turned over to local officials.

This Aug. 30, 2012 file photo shows the pumping station at the 17th Street Canal, built after Hurricane Katrina breached the canal and flooded New Orleans, with the intact canal wall after Hurricane Isaac came through the region. By the time the next hurricane season starts in June 2013, New Orleans will take control of much of a revamped protection system of gates, walls and armored levees the Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $12 billion building. The corps has about $1 billion worth of work left. Engineers consider it a Rolls Royce of flood protection, comparable to systems in seaside European cities such as Venice and Rotterdam. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)

2. Isn't her brother the Mayor of New Orleans now?

However, the Landrieu dynasty is Dem. so guess that is ok.

Moon Landrieu (born 1930), former mayor of New Orleans 1970-1978, former Secretary of HUD in the Carter Administration 1980- 1982 and former 4th Circuit Court of appeals Judge.
Mary Landrieu (born 1955), daughter of Moon Landrieu, and a United States Senator from Louisiana, previously served as State treasurer and house of representatives.
Mitch Landrieu (born 1960), son of Moon Landrieu and is the current mayor of New Orleans, previously served as Lieutenant Governor and State Legislator.

4. She is literally running "homegrown energy" ads in Louisiana RIGHT NOW

3. It's nice that they tried.

I expect that in my lifetime, this will be abandoned due to the land continuing to settle due to the aquifer, and sea level rise, plus mega-storms.

I'd like to see it someday first, but in the end, mother nature's gonna kick your ass if you have a city below sea level on a hurricane prone coast, PLUS the incoming effects of global warming to contend with.

I suspect long-term that money could have been better spent buying people out of their mortgages, and moving them to higher ground.

5. Much of New Orleans is above sea level

though just barely (average elevation five feet). Paradoxically, these are the areas adjacent to the river! (An authentic New Orleans experience is to stand across from Jackson Square and look up at the passing ships.)They were the first to be developed, hence the name "Crescent City".

The sections "back of town" that are now below sea level weren't always that way. The ground has subsided quite a bit over the years. New Orleans is the only place where you will find a Yellow Pages category for "house levelers". When the ground on one side of a house subsides faster than the other side, you see, the houses begin to tilt.

6. Depending on the area, it's sinking from anywhere around an inch a year, to every three years.

That puts the majority of the city at or below sea level within the million hours or so that my body can reasonably be expected to function.

This is of course, potentially devastating for the people who live there. Of course, they could probably say the same about me, when that Cascadia Subduction Zone quake finally shows up and whacks my home town.

8. If they did that

the first people to get kicked out would be the people along the higher ground,which, ironically enough, is the black neighborhood known as Treme. Of course, if we would get some dutch engineers in, they could keep New orleans safe for years.